Registering your Industrial Design in a foreign country

Region: OntarioAnswer Number: 333

Registering your design in Canada only provides legal protection for your design rights in Canada. In the United States, there is a similar type of protection known as ‘design patent’ protection. To obtain protection in other countries, you must make separate design applications in those countries. This process can be very complicated.

New Industrial Design Act

On December 16, 2014, Bill C-43 received Royal Assent, amending the Industrial Design Act to make it consistent with the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. The new Act is not yet in force.

In the new Act, the grace period for the disclosure of a design will be 12 months counted from the priority date. In the new Act, the priority date of a design will be the Canadian filing date, unless a valid priority claim is made, in which case the priority date will be the filing date of the previous regularly filed application.

For legal assistance with your industrial design application, and to protect your ownership of an industrial design in a foreign country, or for other intellectual property matters, contact our preferred lawyers and see who’s right for you: